The parallel workshops ‘Location Management’ and ‘Cinetourism and Territorial Marketing’ realised by Promuovi Italia in collaboration with ‘Associazione Culturale Art Movie e Music’ have now been completed. The workshops’ goal was to teach specific skills for promoting and developing strategies for the territory as a tourist destination, and thus attracting cinematic and audiovisual productions. The first block of lessons delved into territorial marketing, cinema production and the organisation of cultural events, and included contributions by professionals such as directors, art directors, location managers and producers. During the practical second block of lessons, small workgroups conceived and carried out a range of activities by applying the skills acquired in the first block. It was a sort of ‘experiential’ laboratory, where learning was generated by active involvement. This allowed the students to reach their formative goals and test themselves by means of an individual yet interactive learning path.

During the workgroup phase, the ‘Location Management’ participants focused their attention on the photographic mapping (location scouting) of Ischia. This was done in order to meet the needs of producers, directors and filmmakers, since they rely on the professional expertise of location managers to choose the location for their films. The ‘Cinetourism Territorial Marketing’ workshop participants concentrated on the organisation and communicative aspect of cultural events such as the Ischia Film Festival. This festival has been dealing with cinetourism for the past eight years, and awards the films that best promote their locations. According to one of the students, “this emotional and beneficial experience showed us a way to gain professional maturity. The workshop improved our expertise, opened us up to new horizons and provided us with a store of knowledge that we will carry with us throughout our professional career”. Thanks to this experience, students acquired a high professional standard and the skills needed to promote cinema locations in their own territory.